The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said on Thursday that the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu “lives a five star life across several countries, travels on charted private jets, lives in luxury apartments and turns out in designer clothes and shoes”.
This is incredible and ridiculous! At a time Nigerians and the international community are expecting concrete charges against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (MNK) that border
on terrorism, criminalities, murder etc, Lai Mohammed is regaling the world with Nnamdi Kanu’s lifestyle.
Can we now say that what the government would be charging MNK with are: (1) Living a five star life across several countries, (2) traveling on charted private jets, (3) living in luxury apartments, (4) turning out in designer clothes and shoes?
Maybe, the charges being prepared by the Attorney General’s office should read thus: Count 1: that you Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was caught living a five star life across several countries thereby going contrary to the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, an act punishable by death. Count 11: that you Nnamdi Kanu was arrested while traveling on chartered private jets thereby going contrary to the law of the Federal republic of Nigeria; act punishable by death.
Count 111: that you Nnamdi Kanu was intercepted living in luxury apartments, thereby going contrary to the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, act that is punishable by death. Count 1V: that you Nnamdi Kanu was picked up while turning out in designer clothes and shoes, thereby going contrary to the law of the Federal republic of Nigeria, act that is punishable by death.
These are the charges the federal government may lay hands on for now. However, as for the other eleven-count charges that border on terrorism, criminalities, murder etc preferred against MNK, the government may be struggling on how to convict MNK based on them. This may be the reason its officials, Lai Mohammed and Abubakar Malami etc are at a loss on the way forward and have resorted to mundane.
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters, everybody knows, are flag-carrying freedom fighters, well as the court is yet to determine the matter, it is better to leave it at that. Meanwhile, the authoritarian disposition of the Muhammadu Buhari government since he came into office in 2015 is becoming a huge embarrassment to the international community.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) led-government has transmuted from a civilian government that allows free speech, freedom movement and association that includes rallies, to an authoritarian regime ie Gestapo-like; where people’s rights and freedom are trample upon. In Nazi Germany, Hitler secret police Staatspolzei intimidated, attacked, arrested and killed the people with impunity. And where is Hitler today?
In Iraq, Saddam Hussein brutalised his own people to the extent that he couldn’t differentiate the difference between Iraq and Kuwait. Having subdued his people, he thought he would so do on a sovereign nation, Kuwait and the result was his humiliation and eventual death. Did he go down alone? No. He went down with Tariq Aziz, his Foreign Minister/Deputy Prime Minister who parroted his atrocities and painted them as good and of course, other brutes in administration.
The Americans were left with no option than to smash the hell out of the regime; bringing all those who were part of the inglorious regime to justice and eventual death. Ditto to Id Amin Dada of Uganda, Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, Samuel Doe of Liberia etc.
The irony of it is that Gaddafi and Hussein, who were proving stubborn to sound reasoning, ran into rats’ holes when the fire power was on them and were smoked out and made to pay the supreme price. For now, the international community is keeping some tabs on Nigeria and sooner or later, the hammer will fall on the regime.
The experiences of such despots await the Buhari regime if it continues to hound Nigerians. Just the other day, the house of Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba Nation activist was raided by the Department of State Security (DSS) who acknowledged that they gunned down two of his men, arrested many and recovered a number of weapons there. The damage was much higher, according to reports. For now, the police in Lagos have cancelled a rally scheduled in Lagos by the campaigners of the Oduduwa Republic. People are no longer free to hold rallies in today Nigeria.
When would this method of using gangsterism in raiding peoples’ homes, offices or killing victims and ‘recovering some weapons’ in Nigeria end? Abeg! This style is old fashioned. There are modern ways of securing the state or defending it.
Like several Nigerians and the international community are demanding: unconditionally dialogue with the agitators before the fire burns the whole building; and this therefore justifies the counsel of an expert, Prof Femi Olufumilade who reminded the Nigerian authorities that the Nnamdi Kanu of 2017 is no longer the Nnamdi Kanu of 2021. A word is enough for the wise. The threat by Lai Mohammed of the readiness of the government to apprehend and arraign some of the collaborators of Nnamdi Kanu is bullshit.
Henceforth, we will begin to air some important views, statements and comments of some eminent Nigerians on critical national and international issues.
Meanwhile, we are starting with the video clip of Prof Olufumilade. A Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies, with special interest in Conflict and Security Studies Excepts…
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
